BIRMINGHAM, Alabama --Birmingham's Negro League baseball museum will include both traditional and innovative elements including historic sports artifacts, interactive activities and a one-of-a-kind view of Regions Field from a rooftop restaurant, Mayor William Bell said this morning.

Bell was surrounded by former Negro League players as he led a ceremony to symbolically break ground on the $2.3 to $2.5 million facility.

Construction is slated to begin in July, with a grand opening in April 2015.

"You set a standard that sent other players on to the Major League," Bell told the group gathered in Birmingham for the 5th annual Black Baseball Reunion. "This is a great day, just the beginning."

The site is off 15th Street and First Avenue South, behind B&A Warehouse.

Bell said Birmingham corporate mainstays Regions Bank and Protective Life have agreed to help with operations at the museum. He also noted that the Logan family, which owns the Barons, has pledged assistance.

"It's going to be an interactive facility," Bell said "It's going to be a facility where kids and adults come back over and over."

Revel affirmed the promise he made to former Mayor Larry Langford that if the city built a museum, then he would bring his collection to Birmingham. The city's plans to build a baseball museum date back to 2008.

Revel today also saluted the former players.

"At the end of the day, this is your museum," he told the group. "This is your museum. This is your legacy."

Today's ceremony took place the same day that the 19th annual Rickwood Classic is played at Rickwood filed, the historic West End ballpark where the Birmingham Barons and Black Barons played.

The Rickwood Classic game between the Birmingham Barons and the Mississippi Braves is at 12:30 p.m.